Help me - I'm confused by racial labels
POSTED BY: pizmobeach
UPDATED: Wednesday, August 9, 2023 16:59
VIEWED: 9570
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I hate agreeing with you, Wulf, because I decry many, if not most, of what you say; your black-and-white world isn't something I admire; I'd respect you if you addressed reality with real, attainable objectives, not just "heroic", Hollywoodized rhetoric.
Well, that's where show-n-tell comes in, don't it ?
Instead of stomping on the dream, why not work together at accomplishing it, enlighten, educate ?
Hell, I'm not all *that* good at it, but at least I'll try, yanno, instead of backhanding someone for lacking, seems counterproductive to me.
I think the key to handling cultural diversity is indeed Nakama and Family of choice, and the key to expanding our personal care circles or monkeyspheres is rather than a single circle, a set of expanding rings.
Closest is of course your Nakama, your buddies, folk you'd trust with your woman, your beer, your money - then friends and neighbors, your neighborhood, and so on and so forth till you've got the whole world, although at less intensity.
I mean, I'll risk getting shot at for my Nakama - for someone up a creek in a country far away, not so much, but it don't stop me from sparing at least a LITTLE effort (remember the office supplies to RAWA) so much as I can accomplish without much risk or effort, and the halfass support of a lot of folk does add up over time.
Another concept I've been workin on for quite a while is temp-extension, the ability to temporarily yank someone into your monkeysphere for ten minutes, an hour, a day - however long it's needful to associate with them, and then let them drift on out of it at the end of that time.
Not quite convinced of it's benefit yet, but it does seem to be one manner of forcibly overriding an "other" reaction which drags down every social interaction with them and leads to misunderstanding and upset.
So far I've only had one or two (albeit quite memorable) folk who really didn't WANT to be in my monkeysphere, even for a second, but I couldn't tell ya the why - I did respect their will about it though.
"WE" can be the sum of infinite combinations, remember that.
Funny thing about violence in respect to activism, I'll share an actually uttered quote from my past with you, without context, and let you make of it what you will.
"Uh huh, you got six bullets, there's fourteen of us, perhaps you might consider negotiating instead ?"
-F
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"For example, if someone described my favorite supervisor a while back as "Black", it would give a very wrong impression."
Here there are many immigrant families with US born children. To speak of even their children as 'Mexican-American", "Korean-American" etc is quite descriptive, b/c they were brought up straddling cultures, and at least SOME of their heritage is not 'American'.
OTOH, my neighbor, whose family lineage is 100% Filipino but whose upbringing is 100% American, is the quintessential 'Valley Girl'. So to call her Filipina would be very misleading.
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Silence is consent.
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I take it from a brief skimming that none of you are African American or any minority group?
Racial labels are comprised of two components:
1. Self Identification
2. How society looks at you and judges you (prejudice)
1. I am Arab American by most definitions of the label, but I don't identify with Arabs. My family is from Syria originally, spoke Arabic originally, but now we have no connection to Arab culture. My family is also Jewish and though we are not religious Jews, I do identify with our culture and history, so I call myself Jewish American. So, that's self identification.
2. Here in Hawai'i, I'm a ha'ole. It literally means "a person who cannot chant their genealogy", but locals use it as a catch all for anyone with lighter skin color and non-Asian features. They don't differentiate between light skinned people. We are lumped together. Irish, Italian, Greek, Anglo, Swedes, Slavs, etc- any background that might have a cultural or racial separation on the mainland all are 'ha'ole', everyone else is either 'local' or 'Hawaiian' except the Portuguese. They've been here so long they are separate.
Another example of #2 is some of my Hawaiian friends went to university in California and Oregon. There, many of them were seen as Mexican by both people of color and whites. Latinos would come up to them and immediately speak Spanish to them and whites would sometimes ask them about Mexico or say disparaging things about Mexicans at them.
The third most disturbing aspect of #2 is racial profiling. Because of our name (Hajim), my family was harassed after 9/11. You ever been pulled into second or tertiary inspection by the TSA/DHS? For three years, every single flight we went on, we were searched. My kids too. Six flights a year. Six times to secondary. You ever had to watch a stranger take your little kids most treasured items and have to watch your kids cry while a bunch of strangers in uniform take apart their favorite stuffed animal? Try going through that kind of thing 20 times or more. Once we had our luggage pulled off the plane by these guys. Missed the flight. The reason? No reason given 'cept our Arab sounding name is kind of like some on the extended terrorism list.
Racial profiling is much worse for other people than we've ever experienced.
Hope this helps.
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"I take it from a brief skimming that none of you are African American or any minority group?"
Well, there are 'visible minorities' and there are minorities who don't look different from most everyone else.
I take it you mean 'visible minority' ?
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BTW - I knew a guy from PR who, by anyone's visual standards, would have been considered 'black'. He had it all going on - kinky hair, broad nose, full lips etc. (ETA - Oh ! I forgot, dark skin, too.) But he was utterly offended if someone called him black. B/c by god, he was Hispanic !
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Been there done that... at least with the racial profiling on planes...
not to say it was the same thing, but...
Every time I flew, I would get pulled from the line. Im blonde, green eyed, 6"3, but you know.
Gotta keep up appearances.
"NO! We are NOT profiling at all! See?! We pulled this white, relatively large, male from the line!"
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I take it you mean 'visible minority' ?
Indeed.
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would we rather get an immediate impression of someone (which, in truth, also is a prejudgment of them)
Let me be clear - everything that I refer to as cultural 'colour' is no substitute for (or accurate indication of) quality of personality, intellect or appearance. There are beautiful, charming, intelligent women of all different ethnicities/cultures - and they all derive a certain flavour from their heritage, which may or may not get diluted over the generations... but still to me would be interesting, even in trace form.
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Nope, I'm for getting to know the person by more detailed description of the PERSON, not the race, 'cuz I'd jump to conclusions otherwise and have prejudgments of who the person is, their values, religion, politics, etc.
Up to you, but if you were one of my friends coming back with a pretty new latino/african/chinese/Irish american girlfriend, and you denied me any ethnic description on principle I would be disappointed and irked with you (as a friend).
Most of the time a person's race is an irrelevant detail (say for their job suitability or something), but sometimes it is an interesting 'colourful' detail.
Heads should roll
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OTOH, my neighbor, whose family lineage is 100% Filipino but whose upbringing is 100% American, is the quintessential 'Valley Girl'. So to call her Filipina would be very misleading.
Not physically.
Heads should roll
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We can stay here and fight amongst ourselves, or we can join together... and fight our way back to the light.
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Either we heal, as a team... or we die as individuals.
Damn... ain't that the truth.
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